<p>Lack of drug Price Monitoring and Research Unit (PMRU) in Karnataka is hurting the public, who could not bring those selling medicines and devices at inflated prices to books.</p>.<p>It has been four years since the guidelines to set up a price monitoring regime was released. This year, it was revised and renamed. But the state drug controller seems blissfully unaware of the non-existent system.</p>.<p>Despite having 38,000 medical shops, Karnataka has a mere 27 medical inspectors who are trusted with licensing the shops and monitoring their quality. With such inadequate numbers, the state drug controller admits inspecting the medical stores even once a year is a tall order.</p>.<p>The neighbouring Kerala had 40 drug inspectors in January when it set up the PMRU, despite being home to less than 3% of the country’s population (Karnataka has more than 3% population).</p>.<p>Karnataka’s drug control department could have received help if it had registered a Price Monitoring and Research Unit (PMRU) as a society as per the guidelines of the National Pharmaceutical and Pricing Authority (NPPA), India’s drug price watchdog.</p>.<p>This would have qualified the department to receive grants to recruit and pay salaries of a dedicated team to monitor price violations made of a project coordinator, three field investigators and three data entry operators.</p>.<p>State drug controller BT Khanapure told DH, “This requires funds and staff that we do not have. If the government gives us funds and asks us to form a unit, we will.”</p>.<p>Ironically, the state bears the onus to express the desire to set up the unit, apply for grants and register it as a society.</p>.<p>So far, ten Indian states have registered PMRUs -Kerala, Odisha, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Nagaland, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh.</p>
<p>Lack of drug Price Monitoring and Research Unit (PMRU) in Karnataka is hurting the public, who could not bring those selling medicines and devices at inflated prices to books.</p>.<p>It has been four years since the guidelines to set up a price monitoring regime was released. This year, it was revised and renamed. But the state drug controller seems blissfully unaware of the non-existent system.</p>.<p>Despite having 38,000 medical shops, Karnataka has a mere 27 medical inspectors who are trusted with licensing the shops and monitoring their quality. With such inadequate numbers, the state drug controller admits inspecting the medical stores even once a year is a tall order.</p>.<p>The neighbouring Kerala had 40 drug inspectors in January when it set up the PMRU, despite being home to less than 3% of the country’s population (Karnataka has more than 3% population).</p>.<p>Karnataka’s drug control department could have received help if it had registered a Price Monitoring and Research Unit (PMRU) as a society as per the guidelines of the National Pharmaceutical and Pricing Authority (NPPA), India’s drug price watchdog.</p>.<p>This would have qualified the department to receive grants to recruit and pay salaries of a dedicated team to monitor price violations made of a project coordinator, three field investigators and three data entry operators.</p>.<p>State drug controller BT Khanapure told DH, “This requires funds and staff that we do not have. If the government gives us funds and asks us to form a unit, we will.”</p>.<p>Ironically, the state bears the onus to express the desire to set up the unit, apply for grants and register it as a society.</p>.<p>So far, ten Indian states have registered PMRUs -Kerala, Odisha, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Nagaland, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh.</p>
